Becky gasped, feeling unbelievable coldness fill her entire being. She looked down, her blue and black dress rapidly being stained purple by her blood. She only managed to let out a barely audible "what?" before collapsing onto the floor.
She could see his panicked eyes as he pleaded with her to stay awake, feel him shaking her as he struggled to keep her conscious, yet his voice seemed to be far away, barely audible above the roaring of her pulse in her ears.
She tried to stay conscious, tried to focus on his voice, his touch, anything to keep herself alive, yet the undercurrent of darkness seemed to be catching up to her, draining her strength. It soon overtook her, pulling her along into the inky blackness as she lost consciousness.
The ringing of the shot into his ears sobered Crane up quickly, looking around frantically for the shooter among the sea of patrons. Yet as he looked around, he found them just as startled by the sudden gunshot as he was.
A few of the Rogues ducked under the table to avoid any future incoming fire, their eyes looking up into the skylight windows in fear. However, just as many pulled out whatever projectile they had available to them, including a comically large shotgun by Harley labeled The Big One, ready to defend themselves and their allies.
The Penguin, ever ready to throwdown with whomever threatened his establishment, aimed his umbrella rifle at the skylight, with the waiters each drawing a gun and pointing it at anything that could be used as an opening for infiltrating the Lounge.
As the tense seconds ticked by, Crane whispered into her ear to her to stay awake, occasionally shaking her as he probed the gunshot wound, feeling around to try to find the bullet.
No bullet, so it was a clean shot, he thought, examining the wound and the blood pooled around her. A shot like this should have kept her alive for at least a few more minutes, yet I can barely feel her pulse and I can't hear her breathing.
A memory came to him suddenly of a time 7 years before, when something similar had happened to him.
He had been cornered by Black Mask's men masquerading as Penguin's goons in an abandoned timber plant on the outskirts of Gotham. An accidental trip and leaning against a switch had resulted in the sawmills turning on, whirring to life as the factory came alive with the whirring of sawblades and carrying equipment.
The men had been able to pinpoint his location due to that and had cornered him in the office. He tried to fight back, but without his fear gas and with several men to his one, he was grabbed and dragged to the ringleader, who had gleefully and sadistically told the man to throw him onto the blade of the running saw.
He had lost consciousness before the saw cut into his heart, but when he came to, he had found the initial ringleader and the men that had thrown him into the saw squashed like paste under the base of the sawmill, logs scattered around as if a tornado had ravaged the plant. Several of the remaining men had been splattered like squashed houseflies against the pavement, blood on the logs nearby giving evidence as to the murder weapons.
With a start, he could feel her pulse underneath his palm, a rumbling growl sounding near him as her body started to twitch.
"Ivy! Harley! Get out, now!" he warned, as the two approached him.
"What?" Ivy asked, confused at his panicked expression. "Why?"
"Get out now! Before she-"he was cut off as he was grabbed by the throat, claws digging into the skin as Becky slowly rose from the floor, her eyes no longer the bright hazel but instead a luminous, glowing green, a sickly green that resembled the glow and color of radium. While her form was still the same height as she was previously, wooden bark-like armor covered her body, stretching her dress to its limits as it covered her completely. While she didn't have the gaping maw like the Scarebeast had, the fangs jutting from her mouth were just as fearsome as the monster's, the opaque yellow of fear toxin erupting from her mouth like steam as she roared at him.
"Be-cky," he gasped, struggling to breathe as he thrashed in her grip, hands gripping hers as he tried to loosen her grip, but to no avail. "S-Stop!"
With a snarl, she tossed him aside as if he was a broken doll, leaving him stunned as he struggled to raise himself, only to fall to the ground as he watched her turn on the other Rogues.
Ivy rushed towards her, calling upon the trees outside the Iceberg Lounge to come to her aid. They answered her call, their thick trunks wrapping like vines around the woman's torso, attempting to restrain her rampage.
But the newly awakened beast would not be restrained, and with a sharp tug, she wrenched the trees from their roots, the base of the entwinned trunks catching Ivy off-guard as it caught her body and launched it towards the others, sending her tumbling into the approaching Penguin, Two-Face and Riddler.
Harley and Catwoman both rushed at her as she turned to face them, Catwoman leaping at her while Harley approached from behind with her hammer, intending to knock her out. Becky roared as Catwoman tackled her, stumbling as Harley simultaneously slammed the hammer into her head, wood splintering at the impact, yet she still remained standing.
"What's going on with her?" Harley cried, as she dodged a claw swipe. "I thought Crane was the only one that went berserk like this."
"I don't know," Catwoman replied, leaning back as a clawed foot barely avoided scraping her neck. She dodged out of the way, only for Becky to envelope her in a cloud of fear toxin.
"Selena! You okay?" Harley asked, only to be clawed across the face in response.
"Get away from her, you monster! You won't hurt Holly ever again!" Selena roared, using her whip to wrap around Harley's legs and pull her down, leaping on top of her to slash at her as she tried to block the blows with her hammer.
During all this, Becky barreled through the remaining tables, scattering the other Rogues as she started to scale the wall, climbing her way up towards the second level of the Lounge and towards the skylight.
Just as she was about to reach the skylight, she let out an ear-piercing roar of pain as the metal of Crane's scythe sliced into one of her claws, sending a large shard of her wooden claw spinning off into the distance.
"Becky, you need to stop! Now!" Crane yelled, stepping closer to her as she hissed at him, clutching her wounded hand. "You have to calm down. If you keep going like this, you're going to kill someone."
She seemed to pause, a low growl rumbling in her throat.
"I know you don't want that," he pleaded with her, extending a hand towards her. "Let me help you."
That apparently was too much, however, as she merely batted it aside and pushed him back, before leaping out the window and into the dark night of Gotham.
Becky awoke to find herself on top of the building, balking slightly as she shuffled away from the edge, watching with trepidation as it started to crumble away beneath her hands.
Where am I? she thought, looking around as she tried to get her bearings. After a cursory glance, she could tell that from her vantage point she was overlooking the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, a proud symbol of what she once aspired to be, but now a representation of a frightful figure of what she was running from.
She turned away, only to be approached by a mysterious figure. He looked like he had come directly from the Crusades of the Middle Ages, his hood and cuirass white with a red cross stitched across the middle, while his shoulder pauldrons, gauntlets and pants resembled a cross between that of a knight and a special ops agent, a six-pronged, white and red sword strapped to his belt. A cape composed of red strips fell across his shoulders, the high winds of Gotham fluttering the strips like feathers in the breeze. A steel helmet hid his face, his features hidden beneath the mask-like helmet. Only his piercing eyes were visible beneath his helmet, their amber colored eyes staring into her soul, as if in judgment.
"Hopebringer," he rumbled, his voice seemingly echoing in the sudden silence of the city. "We meet at last."
"Who are you? And what do you mean by 'hopebringer'?" Becky asked, her cane out and switched to scythe mode as she stood her ground, expecting an attack.
He raised his hand in a gesture of peace, gesturing for her to put her scythe down. "I do not come as an enemy, Becky Albright."
"Then what did you come as?" she growled, her gaze not leaving the white and red clothed figure as she dropped the scythe near her feet.
"A messenger," he stated simply, as if it were obvious.
Becky scoffed, raising her eyebrows. "Like what, some kind of angel or something?"
Beneath his mask, the figure smiled. "In a sense," he said cryptically, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
"Alright then, what is your message?" she replied. She had heard tales of extraterrestrial creatures, beings that brought about the origin of emotions, worlds contained in bottles, gods and monsters and all kind of things that seemed too impossible to happen. Seeing a supposed "angel" was nothing compared to what she had heard from the others.
He unsheathed his sword, lifting it high above his head before slamming it into the ground, smoke billowing from the tips and swirled around Becky, obscuring the mysterious stranger from view.
"Dark days are on the horizon. Even now, the events of the Prophecy have become set in motion, and the devil and his demons are on the march. The fire will rise from the ashes of Arkham, and Gotham, and everyone in it, will burn."
The smoke seemed to clear, revealing what looked like a scene from hell. Looking down, she could see a yellow haze coating every inch of Gotham city, tinting the sky a sickly yellow as a cacophony of screams echoed throughout the area, rising as a wave from the masses below. Hearing a whistling sound from above her, she looked up, gasping as she watched missiles rain down like meteors onto the ground, burning the people below. Turning, she could spot Jonathan and the other Rogues below her, watching with frozen terror in front of the Solomon Wayne Courthouse as the missiles impacted the front of the building, sending the outstretched arms of Lady Justice tumbling down. She tried to scream, to warm them of their impending demise, only for her words to go unheard as the stone arms crushed them, leaving only the limp arm of the Scarecrow visible in the rubble.
"You are the warrior that will seal the pit of hell. Your actions will decide the fate of Gotham, and in doing so, events will unfold that cannot be stopped."
The haze dissipated, dispersing the vison of the future and unveiling the previous hidden figure of the stranger as he waited for her response.
Becky turned back to look at him, steel in her gaze, her fists clenched against her sides. "If what you've shown me is true, then what must I do to stop this from coming about?" she demanded, trying to put on a brave face despite the shivers of fear pulsing through her body from the vision. Despite her terror, she vowed to herself that she would stop at nothing to prevent this vision of terror from coming true.
The figure seemed to grin, before the mist swirled around him once again, causing him to vanish from sight. But not before he gave his answer:br style="mso-special-character:
"Find me, in the city beneath the earth."